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Greg ShermanRadford University, USA

Copyright © 2006, Idea Group Inc., distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI is prohibited.

ABSTRACT

This chapter presents an overview of 11 different ways in which electronic portfolios(ePortfolios) can support the teaching and learning process. Too often, discussion about thegeneral instructional nature of ePortfolios is reduced to two distinct roles: portfolios as ameans of assessing specific student performance, and portfolios as a showcase for outstandingstudent accomplishments. This chapter summarizes how ePortfolios can contribute to thedesign and implementation of effective instruction in many ways by assuming a variety of rolesthat go beyond a traditional approach to portfolio use in the classroom. These roles includeartifact creation as meaningful context, goal-setting, practice with a purpose, examples andnon-examples, assessment, reflection, communication, instructor planning and managementtool, learner organization tool, interdisciplinary teaching and learning, and historicalrecords/stories as role models. Examples of portfolio requirements and assessment strategiesfrom a higher education teacher preparation program are used to illustrate these differentroles.

INTRODUCTION

Electronic portfolios (ePortfolios) can play avariety of roles within any given educationalenvironment. Teachers might use ePortfoliosas a means of assessing student achievementby designing portfolio artifact requirements that

reflect the successful learning and applicationof specific skills. Similarly, ePortfolios can beused to showcase outstanding student achieve-ment in general if the required portfolio arti-facts are designed to communicate the “bestwork” of students rather than the learning ofspecific outcomes. And because ePortfolio ar-

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Instructional Roles of Electronic Portfolios

tifacts can be accessible via computer net-works, the portfolio development experiencecan be used to ensure learner accountability asteachers, other students, parents, and eventotal strangers examine specific portfolio con-tent.

Assessment, showcasing best practice, andlearner accountability constitute some of themore common ways in which ePortfolios canbe used within an educational environment. Butthese different roles represent just a smallsample of the many different ways in whichePortfolios can support student learning. Afterdesigning and implementing ePortfolio require-ments for different teacher education programsthroughout the past 10 years, I have discoveredthat the true value of ePortfolios lies in thevariety of ways portfolio artifact requirementscan support the instructional process by defin-ing effective general as well as specific instruc-tional strategies.

The purpose of this chapter is to present abroad picture regarding how ePortfolios mightbe used to help facilitate learning within typicalK-12 or higher education environments. Inmost cases, the roles presented in this chapterrepresent the application of instructional strat-egies designed to facilitate the learning of spe-cific outcomes. The instructional strategiesdescribed within each role are consistent withthose presented in many instructional designmodels, including the essential elements of ef-fective instruction (Hunter, 1982), the system-atic design of instruction (Dick & Carey, 1996),the conditions for learning (Gagné & Driscoll,1988), and the constructivist-oriented modelsof Jonassen, Peck, and Wilson (1999).

Each of the following sections presents asingle role along with a description of howportfolios playing such roles can be used tosupport effective instruction. Additionally, ex-amples from the application of ePortfolio re-quirements within a preservice-teacher educa-

tion program are provided to clarify specificallyhow ePortfolios might be used within typicalinstructional settings.

ROLES

Role 1: Artifact Creation asInstructional Context

Regardless of what role an ePortfolio mightplay within a typical learning experience, thereis one thing that all ePortfolios have in common:the learners must create portfolio elements orartifacts to be presented within the portfolioitself. Artifacts might be developed specificallyfor an electronic format (like a Web page withannotated hyperlinks), or the artifacts mightinitially represent specific things that were notdeveloped for inclusion in an electronic envi-ronment, such as a science project involvingliving organisms. In a case such as this, learnersmight communicate the essence of the scienceproject within an electronic environment bycapturing a series of digital images, generatingdigital graphs and charts, developing electronicdocuments that detail the design and data col-lection procedures, and so forth. But whetheror not a learner decides to configure a piece ofnon-digital work to be displayed within anePortfolio or develop something specifically forelectronic delivery, the actual act of creatingsomething for inclusion in an ePortfolio be-comes a context for learning and applying avariety of skills.

A good illustration of how the act of creationcan help define meaningful learning environ-ments can be found in a closer examination ofthe requirements for a teacher preparationportfolio. Figure 1 presents an example of someePortfolio requirements that could be used withina teacher preparation program. These sampleePortfolio requirements were designed to docu-

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ment and communicate the learning of skillsreflected in a number of national standards forprofessional educators, such as the InterstateNew Teacher Assessment and SupportConsortium’s (INTASC’s) core teacher edu-cation standards (see http://www.ccsso.org)and the International Society for Technology inEducation’s (ISTE’s) national educational tech-nology standards for teachers (see http://cnets.iste.org/teachers). Today, many pre-ser-vice teachers must develop such portfolios inorder to communicate their accomplishmentsthroughout their teacher preparation programs.One common artifact in this type of portfolio isa lesson plan or unit study (an example of thisis presented in “Portfolio Component 7: Prob-lem-Based Learning Instructional Material”within Figure 1). This type of artifact mightinclude a description of the lesson plan itself,copies of instructional materials developed, andpossibly a report detailing how effective thelesson was after being implemented within afield experience assignment. Initially, a portfo-lio artifact like this might consist of a word-processed lesson plan, materials developed froma variety of media, and a separate report thatpresents achievement data in tabular form.Creating an ePortfolio artifact that presentsthis information might involve scanning docu-ments to create digital pictures, convertingword-processed pages to Web pages, and tak-ing digital pictures of non-digital material. Andall this information would need to be organizedand stored within some type of digital mediaenvironment, such as a Web site or CD-ROM.This act of “creation” would necessitate thelearning and/or application of a variety of skillsrelated to the use of the technologies needed tomake it all happen.

If you examine the list of basic skills that allteachers should be able to perform as recom-mended by ISTE, you would find that the act ofsuccessfully creating such electronic artifacts

from existing teacher education material wouldprovide evidence that the teacher candidatehad mastered all the skills inherent in the “Tech-nology Operations and Concepts” category.And more importantly, these skills would havebeen learned and/or applied within an environ-ment that was meaningful for the learners—that is, to successfully communicate their les-son or unit plans to their supervisors and possi-bly peers.

Role 2: Goal-Setting/InstructionalScaffolding

If providing a concrete creation-oriented con-text for the learning of specific skills is one ofthe most important roles that ePortfolios canserve within the teaching and learning process,then using ePortfolio requirements as a meansof setting personal learning goals would prob-ably rank a close second in terms of instruc-tional importance. Clearly articulating the goalsof a new learning experience constitutes one ofthe most important instructional strategies thatshould be included within any instruction. Andproviding learners with a detailed picture of allthe artifacts that are expected to be included inan ePortfolio represents a very comprehensiveway to communicate instructional goals. Forexample, professional education students whoare expected to develop an ePortfolio based onthe artifacts presented in Figure 1 are not onlyprovided with a clear picture of what theirportfolios should include, but the descriptions ofeach artifact also provide some direction withrespect to individual assignments that will even-tually lead to the creation of specific artifacts.

In order to develop an artifact that meetsminimum design criteria, learners often requirea more detailed development rubric or guide-line. An example of this is presented in Figure2. This chart presents criteria for the creationof material that will be projected (i.e., Microsoft

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PowerPoint presentations). These guidelineswould be used to evaluate an artifact corre-sponding to the “Portfolio Component 4: Pro-fessional Presentations” in Figure 1. Under-standing the specific requirements of an assign-ment in clear detail not only helps supportlearners by clarifying instructional goals, butthe design requirements themselves can act asinstructional support mechanisms for learners,providing them with opportunities to comparetheir progress to the project requirements. Thistype of support, often referred to as“metacognitive scaffolding” (Hannafin, Land,& Oliver, 1999), in combination with clearinstructional goals, constitutes very effectiveinstructional strategies for learners of all ages.

Role 3: Practice with a Purpose

Another important instructional role that anePortfolio might play within any given learningexperience relates closely to the first role (pro-viding a context for learning and applying spe-cific skills). If teachers require portfolios to beelectronic in order to provide a context forlearning and applying technology-related skills,then the act of successfully creating digitalartifacts will no doubt require practice usingvarious types of technology to successfullyaccomplish all required tasks. Lots of practice.Instead of assigning word-processing, scan-ning, and Web development lessons simply forthe sake of learning how to scan or use a wordprocessor, the journey toward successful port-folio development can be rich with practiceusing technology for a very definite purpose.

Role 4: Examples and Non-Examples

One of the most important instructional strate-gies for learning both knowledge and proce-dural skills is the availability of examples as

well as non-examples that illustrate informa-tion, concepts, and rules (Gagné & Driscoll,1988; Merrill & Tennyson, 1994). And one ofthe greatest strengths of ePortfolios is theability to access portfolio content relativelyeasily. Most teachers and students appreciatethe ability to have samples of unacceptable,acceptable, and outstanding work associatedwith specific assignments. ePortfolios provideteachers with the opportunity to easily collectand organize copies of specific artifact samplesthat have been evaluated and categorized. Be-cause the artifacts are electronic, they can bereadily edited to remove personal identifyinginformation. These artifacts can then be madeavailable to students during class by projectingthem onto a screen when needed, or they canbe accessed from computer via the Internet.

The components presented in Figure 1 offermany good examples of how previously devel-oped portfolios might be used by teacher edu-cators to help students learn specific skillsrelated to teaching. Imagine you are a facultymember facilitating a methods class addressingimportant pedagogical topics, such as class-room management. Now suppose you assignedyour students the task of developing a plan forimproving the use of computers in the class-rooms they were observing within their fieldexperience placements. Students might includethis assignment as part of their overall educa-tion portfolios, with the resulting work becom-ing a portfolio artifact in “Portfolio Component2: Media as Tools of the Professional Educa-tor” as presented in Figure 1. Specifically, theassignment might be included in “Subcompo-nent 2c: The One Computer Classroom.” As ateacher, part of the instruction for this assign-ment could focus on your presentation of coop-erative learning strategies that address theneed for role assignments when sharing limitedresources (Johnson & Johnson, 1998). If youhad access to previously submitted portfolio

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Figure 1. Sample professional education ePortfolio requirements

Portfolio Component

Sub- Component Artifacts/Criteria

a. Personal Image

Create and present a personal image digital file that includes: � Personal image scanned or obtained via

digital camera � Converted to .gif or .jpg � Economic use of size/colors

b. Links

Develop, at a minimum, a Web page presenting links that include: � Grade-level/subject matter professional

organizations and journals � Employment opportunities � Grade-level/subject matter resources and

references � Local-state-national standards for specific

grade level and/or content area

c. Instructional Web Site Reviews

Develop a Web page that presents an overview of at least three existing educational Web sites, including a description of how they might be useful in facilitating specific standards related to your future professional practice

d. Personal Philosophy and “Best Practice” Showcase

Present clearly articulated personal educational philosophies (before and after field experience) Present a sample of work representing area of personal, professional “Best Practice”

1. Web-Based Portfolio Shell

e. Résumé

Create a professionally formatted Word document including, at a minimum: � Educational background � Technological competencies � Community service experiences � Previous work experiences � Personal and career goals

a. Instructional Management Tools

Communicate strategies and examples illustrating successful use of electronic media to improve instructional management skills and procedures (grades, record-keeping, resource management, etc.)

b. Communication Tools

Present strategies and examples illustrating successful use of electronic media to increase classroom communication with the outside (real) world

2. Media as Tools of the Professional Educator

c. The One-Computer Classroom

Present a clearly articulated description and examples of the effective use of a single or small number of computers in your specific grade level or content-area classroom (if applicable)

d. Resource Access and Use

Present descriptions of how the following education-related resources were obtained from the Internet and used (legally and ethically) within your professional practice: � Freeware/shareware � Lesson planning resources � Images/sound/video files

e. Media as Context

Present specific ways in which you have used electronic media to increase the meaning and/or purpose of instructional experiences in your classroom

f. Media in the Content Area

Present unique ways in which electronic media, particularly computers, are being utilized to improve the quality and effectiveness of specific content-area and/or grade-level instructional methods and strategies

Develop a well-constructed narrative presenting educational research,

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Figure 1. continued

3. Educational Research and Evaluation

Develop a well-constructed narrative presenting educational research, evaluation, and/or assessment efforts; this may be a project and/or report successfully completed within an approved evaluation or research course Generate effective graphic data presentation where appropriate

4. Professional Presentations

Create electronically projected material (such as PowerPoint) conforming to appropriate projected message design criteria of a presentation you have made to a group of students or professionals (building or district meeting, conference, etc.)

5. Educational Material Evaluations

Evaluate instructional material (print, software, Web site, etc.) used to facilitate the learning of specific outcomes; evaluation report should include (but is not limited to addressing): � Context: Critical analysis of the learning context established � Components: Identification and critique of instructional design

components presented within the instructional material � Conditions: Identification of outcomes addressed within the

instruction, description of conditions and strategies implemented, critique of relationship between conditions/strategies and outcomes

� Evaluation of message display characteristics employed 6. Content Area Conceptual “Big Pictures”

Create graphic concept map(s) depicting the relationships between distinct key ideas, skills, knowledge, concepts, and/or other important aspects of grade levels and/or content-area domains

7. Problem-Based Learning Instructional Material

Plan, develop (author), implement, and evaluate instruction designed to facilitate the learning of specific standards/outcomes within a problem-based learning context. This learning experience should include, but is not limited to, the following elements: � Outcome(s) the program is designed to facilitate must be

clearly stated and well written � Context: Meaningful, purposeful problem-based learning

context must be established � Components: Appropriate instructional design components

must be developed for context type � Conditions: Appropriate strategies and conditions must be

developed for outcome type(s) � Message Display: Instructional messages and program

usability must conform to appropriate standards Evidence of student achievement must be included in the final evaluation of the material

8. Instructional Design Project Management

Provide a record of design documents for one or more lesson-planning or instructional design projects: storyboards, instructional analyses, instructional strategy descriptions, formative evaluation procedures, summaries of any client/designer interactions, and functional specifications for the use of tools/media to solve particular lesson planning and instructional materials development problems

9. Formative Evaluation Practices

Present plans and results from formative evaluation experiences conducted during your field experiences, including one-to-one evaluations, expert reviews, and field trials

a. Meaningful Learning Contexts

Provide evidence that lessons presented within meaningful contexts enable learners to set their own personal goals and relate to the learners’ personal lives

b. Differentiated Instruction

Provide evidence of enrichment, remediation, and alternate means of implementing instructional strategies to facilitate the learning of specific outcomes

c. Time Management

Provide evidence that specific lessons (particularly large project- or problem-based experiences) allow learners to schedule their time (day, week)

10. Strategies for Cultivating a Learner-Centered Classroom

d. Physical Classroom Arrangement

Provide evidence that the physical arrangement of the classroom in which you facilitated learning: (1) ensured that necessary classroom resources were readily available to the learners; and (2) accommodated all learner-centered classroom strategies

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artifacts in this category, you might be able topresent actual digital pictures of students inlocal classrooms working in small groups arounda single computer. Such examples might depictone student in a group recording information byusing the computer keyboard, another groupmember reading aloud from a text-based re-source, another student leaving the group as thedesignated “runner” to obtain additional re-sources, and another student (clipboard in hand)monitoring group activity to provide feedbackover group member behaviors. Having suchclear examples of role assignments would cer-tainly help those students who were learningabout formal cooperative learning strategies toacquire for the first time skills associated withthe development of such strategies within theirown lesson planning.

Role 5: Assessment

As previously discussed, ePortfolios are oftenused as a platform for the presentation of “bestpractice” examples, and they are also com-monly used as a means of collecting and orga-

e. Adequate Instructional Scaffolds

Present adequate scaffolds for specific instructional experiences; such scaffolds might include procedural, conceptual, metacognitive, strategic, and/or interpersonal support mechanisms for individual learners

f. Self-Assessment

Present evidence that you structured self-assessment experiences for your learners and provided analytic rubrics at the beginning of a problem or project-based learning experience

g. Roles

Provide evidence that you assign specific roles to each member of learning teams and implement other appropriate forms of positive interdependence when grouping students

11. Multicultural Classroom Environment

Provide evidence that you: (1) identified biases in the instructional material used to facilitate learning and you communicated these to your learners; and (2) developed instructional experiences that foster positive attitudes toward human diversity

12. Field Experience Reflections

Present a variety of narratives documenting your personal insight and growth as you journey through your field experiences; these reflections should reference the feedback received from formal as well as informal evaluations conducted by cooperating teachers and university supervisors

Figure 1. continued

nizing artifacts that represent evidence ofachievement aligning with specific learningoutcomes. In both cases, learners can usedetailed portfolio requirement criteria (as wellas examples of artifacts developed by otherlearners) to help them regulate their learningand assess their progress as they develop theirown artifacts. More directly, portfolio artifactscan be used to measure the learning of out-comes that would be difficult to assess usingmore traditional testing procedures.

Once again, a good example of how anePortfolio artifact could be used to measure thelearning of a specific outcome is found withinthe portfolio requirements presented in Figure1. The details of “Portfolio Component 6: Con-tent Area Conceptual ‘Big Picture’” includethe following:

Create graphic concept map[s] depictingthe relationships between distinct key ideas,skills, knowledge, concepts, and/or otherimportant aspects of grade levels and/orcontent-area domains.

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Successfully accomplishing this task wouldinvolve, at a minimum, the application of skills inthe areas of developmentally specific contentknowledge, concept mapping, and the use ofsoftware enabling the visual creation or repre-sentation of a concept map. Now consider anelementary education student who is expectedto learn the skills indicated within the NationalCouncil for Accreditation of TeacherEducation’s (NCATE) program standards forelementary teacher preparation, based on the

standards developed by the Association forChildhood Education International (AECI). Oneof the standards in the “Connections Across theCurriculum” category states:

Candidates know and understand theconnections among concepts, procedures,and applications from content areas.

Assessing this outcome might be easily ac-complished through exams within specific con-

Figure 2. Assessment criteria for designing projected message displays (visual literacyprinciples)

Assessment Category Assessment Criteria* Screen display should follow the horizontal-vertical and left-right organization that is common to the culture of the intended audience: typically left-to-right, up-to-down in American public school culture. Attention should be drawn to those parts of a message intended to stand in contrast to other screen elements. Contrasts used to draw attention should be abrupt, using one or more of the following display characteristics: � Brightness (regular versus dimmed text and pictures) � Volume (i.e., bolded font, larger font size, etc.) � Color � Use of graphic devices such as lines and arrows � Animation Messages should not be obscured by too much non-critical detail. The universal rule of design should generally apply: KEEP IT SIMPLE. One strategy for “keeping it simple” is to limit the amount of text on the screen. This can be accomplished by bulleting key ideas, not entire sentences.

General Message Display

Avoid backgrounds that fade from dark to light across the entire slide or present a picture or pattern with very distinct light and dark regions. Text and background contrast should be clear (i.e., black text on a white background, white text on a blue background, etc.). Use a plain, light-colored background with dark text, or a plain dark background with light-colored text. Standard text formatting (mixed upper and lower case letters following standard grammar) should be used throughout, even for titles, headings, etc. Limit the amount of text per slide! A good rule of thumb is the 6 X 6 rule: Six words per line, six lines per slide MAX. Usually, complete sentences use too many words. Consider presenting the key ideas as bulleted points. Sans serif fonts are generally easier to read than serif fonts when projected. Serif fonts have little hooks or “feet” along the edges of each character; sans serif fonts do not. Try not to use a font size smaller than 16 point. Generally, the bigger the better. Use consistent fonts throughout (do not mix too many font types).

Text Use

Keep text away from side edges and borders.

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tent-area courses, though many higher educa-tion subject matter courses do not necessarilyaddress content as it relates to specific gradelevels. But even if exam results were obtainedfor individual students, a relationship wouldneed to be established between specific testitems and “ ... connections among concepts,procedures, and applications.” Compare thisoption with using the corresponding ePortfolioartifact requirement for the development of aconceptual “Big Picture” (Figure 1, Component6). In this case, the portfolio artifact reflects ameans of assessment that is easier to accessand communicate among and between faculty,

and it represents a very effective way to mea-sure the performance of those concepts indi-cated within the standard.

Role 6: Reflection

A very effective instructional strategy thatapplies to the learning of most types of skills isthe facilitation of a review or closure experi-ence within the instructional experience. Par-ticularly for adult learners, some of the moreeffective review activities include ensuring thatindividual learners reflect on what they learned,and examine the strengths and areas for im-

Figure 2. continued

Note: Many of these visual design guidelines were adapted from Fleming and Levie (1993)

Pictures and Illustrations

A picture’s function on the slide should be clear (conceptual support, graphic organizer, lucid example, etc.). Pictures and illustrations should be closely related to the context of the text. Pictures designed to organize concepts and ideas should incorporate devices stressing temporal (time), conceptual, and/or spatial relationships: � Storyboard layout � Sequence emphasized by arrows, numbers, or labels � Pictures in sequence presented one at a time in correct

sequence (or video used to achieve same result) � Spatial organization utilizes 3D diagrams or

superimposition of features Pad the space around graphics (do not let text get too close to your pictures).

Make the picture background transparent if it is different from slide background (or place a border around picture). Diagrams and charts should be used to concisely communicate the relationship between related variables, especially variables that have numeric data presented in tables… …BUT concrete ideas might end up too abstract when presented in graphic form. Attention should be drawn to captions. The relative importance of elements should be represented by relative sizes in the diagram, thicker lines for stronger relationships, and so forth. Graphs depicting more precise amounts should utilize a Cartesian graph (x and y axis). Graphs depicting comparative amounts where precision is not important may utilize pie charts. Trends should generally be illustrated by line graphs. Comparisons may be illustrated by bar graphs or pie charts.

Diagrams, Charts, and Graphs

Because chart labels are often presented in smaller font, it is usually best to place graphs and charts on individual slides with completely white backgrounds.

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provement regarding how they learned thesenew skills (Knowles, 1984).

Most ePortfolio environments include theability to easily add comments and/or notes toworks-in-progress as well as completed arti-facts. This capability of ePortfolio systemsmakes it easy to include opportunities for re-flection and self-evaluation into the portfoliorequirements. Figure 1 includes an example ofa formal reflection requirement for a teachereducation portfolio (“Portfolio Component 12:Field Experience Reflections”). Additionally,artifact creation often involves the develop-ment of many different versions or drafts be-fore a permanent portfolio fixture is produced.These drafts can help learners reflect on theprocess they personally engaged in as theydeveloped a complete and acceptable artifact.

Role 7: Communication

Many ePortfolio development programs andservice (such as LiveText or TaskStream) in-clude Web-based communication features. Inaddition to easily sharing electronic artifactswith others by displaying the material in Webpages, most of these popular Web-basedePortfolio environments integrate e-mail fea-tures, the ability to post comments within anelectronic bulletin board, and even the ability tocommunicate in real time within Web-basedchat windows.

There are a variety of ways in which e-mail,bulletin boards, and chat capabilities can im-prove the overall efficacy of an instructionalexperience. First and foremost, these methodsof communication can provide feedback forstudents who are trying to learn specific skills.Feedback can come from teachers, peers, oreven outside experts who might be invited toparticipate in a review of material. Likewise,additional examples and non-examples can beprovided by various members of a learning

community when a request for such support ismade. This type of communication could alsoprovide encouragement and motivation forlearners as they engage in dialogue with othersinterested in their projects. And speaking ofmotivation, knowing that finished projects couldbe accessible to parents, peers, and/or potentialemployers can motivate some students to learnand perform at their best.

The ability to communicate with others alsomakes it possible to work on group projectsmore effectively. Today, computer users on anetwork can share files, work on the same filesimultaneously, and communicate in real timewith members of a learning community regard-less of their physical location. These resourcesmight encourage educators to include morecollaborative exercises within a course, whichcould lead to more effective learning experi-ences for those students who flourish in sociallyrich learning environments.

Role 8: Instructor Planning andManagement Tool

Perhaps one of the most overlooked roles thatePortfolios can play in the teaching and learn-ing process is the support that portfolios providein the planning and management of instructionalexperiences. ePortfolios can help teachersmanage the instructional process by enablingthem to view, track, and evaluate learnerprogress from a single networked computer.And the built-in communication features withinmany ePortfolio environments can simplify theprocess of informing students about variousaspects of their project development.

In addition to helping manage the instruc-tional process, all the decisions that educatorsmust make about the type of artifacts to beincluded within student portfolios as well as thedevelopment of assessment rubrics and/or grad-ing criteria to help guide student portfolio cre-

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ation constitute very effective planning prac-tices. For example, consider the thought pro-cesses that most likely went into developing justone of the portfolio requirements presented inFigure 1. Portfolio Component 10, for example,includes the artifact requirements for teachereducation students in the area of cultivating alearner-centered classroom. These learner-centered strategy categories include: (a) mean-ingful learning contexts, (b) differentiated in-struction, (c) time management, (d) physicalclassroom arrangement, (e) adequate instruc-tional scaffolds, (f) self-assessment, and (g)roles. The descriptions included for each ofthese categories needed to be developed in anorganized and clearly worded fashion. In fact,the wording of the descriptions could be re-garded as instructional goals. And these goalswere most likely formulated in accordance witha broader set of standards to which all teachereducation students would be held accountable.

Examining one of the ACEI standards forelementary educators illustrates this point. Thefollowing represents one of ACEI’s “Instruc-tion” standards:

3d. Active engagement in learning—Candidates use their knowledge andunderstanding of individual and groupmotivation and behavior among students atthe K-6 level to foster active engagement inlearning, self- motivation, and positive socialinteraction and to create supportive learningenvironments.

The connection between this standard andthe individual strategy categories included inPortfolio Component 10 appears fairly direct.Education faculty members who might be re-sponsible for ensuring that students involved infield experience activities develop portfolio ar-tifacts in compliance with Portfolio Component10 already have their instructional goals estab-

lished, and these goals are already aligned withnational professional standards. In addition toestablished goals, education faculty membersmay also have easy access to Portfolio Compo-nent 10 artifacts from previous students. Asindicated earlier in this chapter, such resourcescan be invaluable resources in the developmentand implementation of effective instruction.

Role 9: Learner Organization Tool

In addition to helping educators plan and man-age the instructional process, ePortfolios canalso play an important role in organizing thelearning process for students. Portfolio re-quirements can be used as a conceptual “BigPicture” throughout students’ courses andprojects. This can help learners make connec-tions between new skills they are learning andthose skills they have already learned. Like-wise, this “Big Picture” can be a constantreminder of the overall instructional goals thatlearners would be expected to achieve within acourse, grade level, or program. And access toportfolio components and artifacts that havebeen developed by other learners can be usedas a means of ensuring that the instructionalgoals are clearly understood by each learner.

Clearly defined goals can help learnersmentally organize many aspects of an instruc-tional experience. But portfolios can also helplearners remain organized in other, more con-crete ways. Because ePortfolios include a va-riety of computer file types that comprise theresources used to develop a particular artifact,learners must organize their work according tothe conventions of typical computer environ-ments. Figure 3 presents an example of thetypes of folders and files that might be includedin a computer workspace used by individualstudents in the process of developing ePortfolioartifacts. Generally speaking, experienced com-puter users learn that complex projects involv-

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ing many different types of files require anorganized file structure on their computer inorder to manage and keep track of everything.By encouraging learners to develop an orga-nized structure like the one used in Figure 3,teachers can model metacognitive strategies.And for teacher education students, this type ofmodeling might also impact their ability to es-tablish procedures for structuring learner-cen-tered classrooms.

Modeling an organized way to manage theportfolio development process is an importantmeans of helping students learn and applyproject management skills. Another form ofsupport, or scaffolding, is inherent in the use ofdetailed assessment rubrics or grading criteriafor each artifact. These rubrics can be used bystudents to regulate their own learning and plan

the steps needed to successfully accomplisheach task.

Role 10: Interdisciplinary Teachingand Learning

One thing that becomes very apparent afterclosely examining the requirements presentedin the teacher education portfolio sample inFigure 1 is the fact that, as a whole, the portfoliois much bigger than any single course couldaddress. Indeed, teacher education studentshoping to develop all the artifacts for theirportfolio would need to apply and repurposematerial from a variety of courses, field expe-rience assignments, and personal experiences.This is a prime example of interdisciplinaryteaching and learning. Skills and experiences

Folder Sub Folders File Descriptions Portfolio Requirements

This folder might include a document that details the requirements for the overall portfolio (similar to Figure 1).

Artifact Rubrics Rubrics or assessment criteria for each artifact could be included in this folder (documents similar to Figure 2).

Assignments

Calendars and Timelines

Project management information, such as calendars, timelines, task lists, and so forth, could be included in this folder.

Project 1 Folder This folder would include documents related to one specific project/artifact. Word processing documents, Web page files, video clips, and so forth could be included in this folder.

Project 2 Folder A separate folder for each project could be developed to organize the files that will contribute to the final product for each artifact or project.

Images

Image files to be used throughout the various projects could be stored in one folder in order to make it easier to keep track of them. This folder might include two sub-folders, one for the images in their pre-edit phase, and the other with images that are ready to be used in Web pages.

In Progress

Resource Files

Additional resource files that might be used throughout the portfolio development process could be included in this folder, including a file that keeps track of all references used throughout the different projects, files that include resource information obtained from various sources, and raw artifacts such as course research papers that might be used in other projects.

Project 1 Folder This folder might include all the files constituting a completed artifact, including Web pages, images, video clips, and so forth.

Project 2 Folder

Separate folders for each completed project should be established. These folders could be labeled with the same numbering convention used in the overall portfolio requirements document. For example, the numbering and labels used in Figure 1 might result in a completed projects folder with the label “artifact_10c.”

Completed

Checklists This folder would include the checklists used to keep track of the status of various projects.

Figure 3. Typical computer file structure for supporting the development of electronicportfolio artifacts

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from one course might need to be directlyapplied to projects in another course, and as-signments for specific courses might need to bedirectly tied to the general portfolio require-ments, ensuring that a broad set of standardsare learned across courses. And the challengesassociated with evaluating portfolio artifactsthroughout an individual student’s journeythrough a teacher education program wouldnecessitate the need for faculty members towork closely together in order to maintain con-sistency, quality, and accountability.

Role 11: Historical Records andStories as Role Models

The final ePortfolio role addressed is a verygood role on which to end this chapter. Whencomprehensive, programmatic portfolios likethe one presented in Figure 1 are completed, thelearners leave behind an official, historic recordof their experiences within the program. Col-lectively, the portfolio tells a detailed story ofpersonal achievement. Portfolios can also pro-vide the opportunity to get inside the mind oflearners as they faced the many challengesassociated with learning important things. Andthe personal nature of these stories can be usedby educators to help novice learners acquirepositive attitudes about learning those skills thatother students have learned before them.

CONCLUSION

ePortfolios are not always designed to supportthe instructional process. As previously indi-cated, portfolios can be used as a means ofcommunicating the best practice of students, ormore commonly they can be used simply as ameans of assessing student achievement. ButePortfolios can also be used to support theinstructional process in a number of effective

and creative ways, as illustrated by the 11different roles presented in this chapter. Today,the options available to educators in the area ofePortfolios are tremendous. There are numer-ous Web-based services that provide studentswith computer-based products and servicesdesigned to help them develop portfolio mate-rial in digital form to be organized and deliveredvia the Internet. Most school districts and insti-tutions of higher education provide studentswith the resources needed to store digital infor-mation in a variety of formats. And as morehomes become networked, the opportunitiesfor learners to extend their portfolio develop-ment efforts into their lives outside schoolexpands the possibilities of using ePortfolios toestablish meaning, purpose, and personal rel-evance to the activities that occur within theclassroom. Also, when students graduate andmove on to bigger and better things, they leavebehind stories and examples that can be used tosupport instruction for future learners.

Setting an example is not the main means ofinfluencing another; it is the only means.

—Albert Einstein

REFERENCES

Dick, W., & Carey, L. (1996). The systematicdesign of instruction (4th ed.). New York:HarperCollins.

Fleming, M., & Levie, W. H. (Eds.). (1993).Instructional message design: Principlesfrom the behavioral and cognitive sciences.Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Educational TechnologyPublications.

Gagné, R., & Driscoll, M. (1988). Essentials oflearning for instruction. Englewood Cliffs,NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Hunter, M. (1982). Mastery teaching. Thou-sand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

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Johnson, D., & Johnson, R. (1998). Learningtogether and alone: Cooperative, competi-tive and individualistic learning (5th ed.).Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Jonassen, D., Peck, K., & Wilson, B. (1999).Learning with technology: A constructivistperspective. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Knowles, M. (1984). The adult learner: Aneglected species (3rd ed.). Houston: GulfPublishing.

Merrill, M. D., & Tennyson, R. (1994). Teach-ing concepts: An instructional design .Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Educational TechnologyPublications.

KEY TERMS

Assessment: Measurement of the degreeto which a learner acquired the skills, knowl-edge, and/or attitudes that a learning experi-ence was designed to facilitate.

Instructional Context: All the factorsexternal to learners within an instructional en-vironment that provide meaning for the mes-sages they receive. These are the factors thatinfluence and define what, when, where, how,why, and with whom individual learners learnfrom instruction.

Instructional Design: Process of decid-ing how a learning environment should be ar-ranged (specifying specific instructional eventsand learning conditions) in order to maximizethe probability that targeted learners will ac-quire specified skills, knowledge, and/or atti-tudes.

Instructional Scaffolding: Support mecha-nisms included within a learning environmentdesigned to help individual learners success-fully accomplish their learning goals.

Instructional Strategies: Activities spe-cifically designed to achieve instructional goals.Generally, the most effective strategies usedwithin an instructional experience depend onthe types of skills, knowledge, and/or attitudesfacilitated.

Media: Physical elements within a person’senvironment that communicate messages.

Metacognitive Strategies: Plans or ap-proaches learners use to accomplish difficultcognitive tasks such as problem solving.

Reflection: Activities related to specificlearning experiences in which learners thinkabout what they are learning, how new thingsbeing learned relate to their preexisting knowl-edge, and how they are personally learning thenew skills, knowledge, and/or attitudes.

educ 603 · ing effective general as well as specific instruc-tional strategies. the purpose of...

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